Rural or Urban? Delimitation of The Czech Republic Municipalities Using Lukasiewicz T-norm

摘要

Due to substantial population movement last two decades in The Czech Republic, it is very difficult to delimitate rural and urban areas. This population movementtogether with new settlement, improvement of municipality infrastructure andother socioeconomic changes are characteristic features of suburbanization. Thisphenomenon has affected many rural-like municipalities, especially thosesurrounding larger cities. Villages with close contact to adjacent cities have become more urban-like since then and vice versa. To maintain sustainability and quality of life in peripheral municipalities development funds has beenestablished. But these funds respect only one strict rule - municipalities with lessthan 2,000 inhabitants can reach the financial support in The Czech Republic. This sharp limit is no moresuitable although being very clear and simple. Fuzzy sets and operationsallow to (1)combine more socioeconomic indicators for complex delimitation, (2) definetransitional municipalities in order to refine their delimitation and (3) respectdynamics of suburbanization. This paper presents the usage of fuzzy logicprinciples for proper delimitation of rural and urban areas which much morerespects aspects of suburbanization and helps consequent fund policy to be moreapplicable.